Artist Paul Gauguin in Tahiti Artist Paul Gauguin in Tahiti Artist Paul Gauguin in Tahiti The French artist's obsession with French Polynesia lasted more than a decade. Tahitian women on beach, 1891, by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), oil on canvas. Getty Images / DeAgostini By Donna Heiderstadt Updated March 14, 2016. No artist is more indelibly tied to the South Pacific , and to Tahiti in particular, than 19th-century French painter Paul Gauguin. From his world-famous paintings of sensual Tahitian women to his unhealthy obsession with his exotic adopted home, here are some interesting facts about his life and legacy: Facts About Paul Gauguin and His Life • He was born Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin in Paris on June 7, 1848 to a French father and a Spanish-Peruvian mother. • He died on May 8, 1903, alone and impoverished and suffering from syphilis on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands and is buried there in Calvary Cemetery in Atuona.

• From the age of three to seven, he lived in Lima, Peru, with his mother (his father died during the trip there) and then returned to France where as a teenager he attended a seminary and worked as a merchant marine. • Gauguin's first career was as a stockbroker, which he worked at for 12 years. Painting was merely a hobby. continue reading below our video America's Best Foodie Cities • Intrigued by the painters of the Impressionist movement of late 1870s, Gauguin, at age 35 and the father of five children with his Danish-born wife, gave up his business career in 1883 to devote his life to painting. • His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. • It was 1891 when Gauguin left France and the western ideals he felt restricted by behind and moved to the island of Tahiti . He chose to live with natives far outside the capital, Papeete, where there were many European settlers.

• Gauguin's Tahitian paintings, most of them of exotic, raven-haired Tahitian women, are celebrated for their bold use of color and symbolism. They include La Orana Maria (1891), Tahitian women on Beach, (1891), The Seed of the Areoi (1892), Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897), and Two Tahitian Women (1899). • Gauguin's Tahitian masterpieces now hang in major museums and galleries around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, the Musee D'Orsay in Paris, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. • Sadly, no original Gauguin paintings remain in French Polynesia. There is a rather rundown Gauguin Museum on the main island of Tahiti, but it contains solely reproductions of his work. • Gauguin's Tahitian legacy lives on in a luxury cruise ship, the m/s Paul Gauguin , which cruises the islands year-round.

About the Author Donna Heiderstadt is a New York City based freelance travel writer and editor who has spent her life pursuing her two main passions: writing and exploring the world. Paul Gauguin | Two Tahitian Women | The Met Two Tahitian Women Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands) Date: 37 x 28 1/2 in. (94 x 72.4 cm) Classification: Gift of William Church Osborn, 1949 Accession Number: 49.58.1 On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 825 As Gauguin brought his work in Tahiti to a close, he focused increasingly on the beauty and serene virtues of the native women.

In this painting, he depended on sculpturally modeled forms, gesture, and facial expression to vivify the sentiments he had used to describe the "Tahitian Eve": "very subtle, very knowing in her naïveté" and at the same time "still capable of walking around naked without shame." These two figures first appear in the artist's monumental frieze Faa Iheihe (Tahitian Pastoral) of 1898 (Tate, London) and again in the even larger Rupe Rupe (The Fruit Harvest) of 1899 (Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), which he composed for the upcoming Exposition Universelle of 1900. Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): 99 / PGauguin Provenance Daniel de Monfreid (until 1900; sold in September to Fayet); Gustave Fayet, Igny, France (1900–ca. 1925); [Wildenstein, New York, ca. 1925–30]; William Church Osborn, New York (1930–49) Exhibition History Paris.

Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées. "Salon d'Automne: Oeuvres de Gauguin," October 6–November 15, 1906, no. 14 (as "Deux Tahitiennes," lent by G. Fayet). London. Grafton Galleries. "Manet and the Post-Impressionists," November 8, 1910–January 15, 1911, no. 44 (as "Deux Torses"). Amsterdam. Musée Municipal Suasso. "Catalogue des ouvrages de peinture, scuplture, dessin, gravure," October 6–November 7, 1912, no. 14? (as "Les négresses," lent by Mme J. Cohen Gosschalk-Bonger). London. Royal Academy of Arts. "French Art: 1200–1900," January 4–March 12, 1932, no.

536 (as "Deux Tahitiennes [Femmes aux Mangos]," lent by William Church Osborn, New York) [commemorative catalogue, 1933, no. 387]. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Taste of Today in Masterpieces of Painting before 1900," July 10–October 2, 1932, no catalogue (lent by William Church Osborn). Art Institute of Chicago. "A Century of Progress," June 1–November 1, 1933, no. 364 (lent by William Church Osborne, New York). New York. Durand-Ruel. "Important Paintings by Great French Masters of the Nineteenth-century," February 12–March 10, 1934, no. 19 (as "Les Tahitiennes," lent anonymously). Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Museum of Art. "Post-Impressionists," February 2–March 13, 1935, no catalogue (lent by W. C. Osborn [see letter in archive file dated January 11, 1951]). New York.

Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "Paul Gauguin: 1848–1903," March 20–April 18, 1936, no. 41 (as "Tahitians with Mangoes," lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Church Osborn, New York City). Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Paul Gauguin: 1848–1903," May 1–21, 1936, no. 40 (as "Tahitiennes au Mango," lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Church Osborn, New York City). Cleveland Museum of Art. "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition," June 26–October 4, 1936, no. 281 (as "Tahitians with Mangoes," lent by William Church Osborn). Paris. Palais National des Arts. "Chefs d'œuvre de l'art français," July–September 1937, no. 327 (as "Deux Tahitiennes: Femmes au Mango," lent by William Church Osborn, New-York). New York.

World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European & American Paintings, 1500–1900," May–October 1940, no. 354 (lent by Mr. William Church Osborn). New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Art in Progress," May 24–October 15, 1944, unnumbered cat. (as "Tahitian Girls [Women with Red Mango Blossoms]," lent by William Church Osborn). New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin," April 3–May 4, 1946, no. 35 (as "Tahitian Women with Red Mango," lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Church Osborn). Paris. Orangerie des Tuileries. "Gauguin: Exposition du centenaire," 1949, no. 54. Kunstmuseum Basel. "Paul Gauguin zum 100. Geburtsjahr," November 26, 1949–January 29, 1950, no.

61 (as "Die roten Blüten/Les seins aux fleurs rouges," lent by MMA). Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne. "Gauguin: Expostion du centenaire," February 16–April 16, 1950, no. 17. Hempstead, N. Y. Hofstra College. "Metropolitan Museum Masterpieces," June 26–September 1, 1952, no. 37. Art Institute of Chicago. "Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture," February 12–March 29, 1959, no. 64. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture," April 23–May 31, 1959, no. 64. Stockholm. Etnografiska museet. "Gauguin i Söderhavet," March 5–May 10, 1970, no. 54 (as Les seins aux fleurs rouge). Tokyo National Museum.

"Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 10–October 1, 1972, no. 103. Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 8–November 26, 1972, no. 103. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic," October 30, 1973–January 6, 1974, no. 41. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue. Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 73. Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 73.

Art Institute of Chicago. "The Art of Paul Gauguin," September 17–December 11, 1988, no. 230. Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "The Art of Paul Gauguin," January 10–April 20, 1989, no. 230. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. "Paul Gauguin, Tahiti," February 7–June 1, 1998, no. 55. Essen. Museum Folkwang. "Paul Gauguin: Das verlorene Paradies," June 17–October 18, 1998, no. 49 (as "Zwei Tahitianerinnen / Les seins aux fleurs rouges"). Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Paul Gauguin: Das verlorene Paradies," October 31, 1998–January 10, 1999, no. 49. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections," June 18–October 20, 2002, no. 105. Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Gauguin Tahiti," September 30, 2003–January 19, 2004, no. 156. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Gauguin Tahiti," February 29–June 20, 2004, no. 156. London. Tate Modern. "Gauguin: Maker of Myth," September 30, 2010–January 16, 2011, no. 145. Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Gauguin: Maker of Myth," February 27–June 5, 2011, no. 145. Madrid. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. "Gauguin y el viaje a lo exótico," October 9, 2012–January 13, 2013, no. 14. New York.

Museum of Modern Art. "Gauguin: Metamorphoses," March 8–June 8, 2014, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 164). References Paul Gauguin. Letter to Georges-Daniel de Monfreid. 189? [Ref. Wildenstein 1964 refers to "Lettres de Paul Gauguin à Georges-Daniel de Monfreid," édition 1950, p. 152]. Paul Jamot. "Le Salon d'Automne." Gazette des beaux-arts, 3rd ser., 36 (1906), p. 471, ill., relates this picture to "Three Tahitian Women" of 1897 (MMA 1997.60.3). Just Havelaar. "Paul Gauguin." Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 22, no. 44 (July–December 1912), p. 412, ill., as "Vrouwen van Tahiti," in the exhibition of Gauguin's work at the Moderne Kunst-Kring in Amsterdam.

Charles Morice. Paul Gauguin. first ed. [new ed. 1920]. Paris, 1919, ill. between pp. 108–9, as "Les seins aux fleurs rouges". Paul Gauguin. Noa Noa. New York, 1919, ill. opp. p. 12, as "Girl with Fruit-Dish". J[ean].-G[abriel]. Goulinat. "Les collections Gustave Fayet." L'Amour de l'art 6 (January 1925), p. 134, ill. p. 141, as "Les femmes au mango". Pierre Girieud, ed. Paul Gauguin. Les Albums d'art Druet, Vol. 12, Paris, [1928], unpaginated, ill., as both "Porteuses des fleurs" and "Les deux porteuses de fleurs". A. Alexandre. Paul Gauguin, sa vie et le sens de son oeuvre. Paris, 1930, pp.

185, 259, ill., as "Et l'or de leur corps". Pola Gauguin. My Father Paul Gauguin. first American ed. [Norwegian ed. (?)]. New York, 1937, ill. opp. p. 172, erroneously dates it 1892. Charles Sterling in Chefs d'œuvre de l'art français. Exh. cat., Palais National des Arts. Paris, 1937, pp. 162–63, no. 327. Martin Tow. Tainted Paradise: A Study of the Life and Art of Paul Gauguin. New York, 1937, pp. 159–60, ill. opp. p. 118, calls it "The Crimson-flowered Breasts" and dates it 1892. R. H. Wilenski. Modern French Painters. New York, [1940], pp. 133, 138, pl. 45A, considers this and "Three Tahitian Women" more European than earlier Tahitian works. Raymond Cogniat. Gauguin.

Paris, 1947, pl. 105, dates it 1889. Jean Leymarie. Gauguin. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1949, pp. 64–65, no. 54, pl. XXI. Georg Schmidt. Paul Gauguin zum 100. Geburtsjahr. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel?, [1949], pp. 42, no. 61, pl. 28, calls it "Die roten Blüten/Les seins aux fleurs rouges" and includes it with works painted during Gauguin's second sojourn in Tahiti. Jean Leymarie. "Musée de l'Orangerie: Exposition Gauguin." Musées de France (June 1949), pp. 111–12, ill. Frank Elgar. Gauguin. Paris, 1949, unpaginated, no. 14, pl. 14. Bernard Dorival.

"Sources of the Art of Gauguin from Java, Egypt and Ancient Greece." Burlington Magazine 93 (April 1951), p. 121, notes that the women's stances are based on a Javanese relief at Borobudur, a photograph of which was found among the artist's possessions. Henri Dorra. "Ia Orana Maria." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 10 (May 1952), pp. 257–58, ill. Fritz Novotny. Die Grossen Französischen Impressionisten, Ihre Vorlaüfer Und Ihre Nachfolge . Vienna, 1952, p. 60, no. 37, ill. (color). Bernard Dorival, ed. Carnet de Tahiti. By Paul Gauguin. facsimile of Gauguin's Carnet de Tahiti. Paris, 1954, vol. 1, p. 62, note for p. 39, notes that his student Mme Thirion, in an unpublished thesis, established that Gauguin took his inspiration for this picture from a drawing by H.

Gray, "La marchande de pommes," illustrated in the Courrier français, 1884, no. 30. Lawrence Hanson and Elisabeth Hanson. Noble Savage: The Life of Paul Gauguin. New York, 1954, pp. 250, 263, ill., identify the woman on the left as Pahura, one of Gauguin's native "wives". Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), pp. 7, 54, ill., finds that this painting has "an exotic beauty recalling the poems of Baudelaire". Herbert Read. "Gauguin: Return to Symbolism." Art News Annual 25 (November 1955), pp. 123, 144, ill. (color). Georges Wildenstein. "L'idéologie et l'esthetique dans deux tableaux—clés de Gauguin." Gazette des beaux-arts 47 (1956), pp. 137, 157, fig.

25, finds the same sitters and poses in several other paintings. Robert J. Goldwater. Paul Gauguin. 1st ed. [concise ed. 1983]. New York, [1957], pp. 152–53, ill. (color). Henri Perruchot. Gauguin, Tahiti. Paris, 1958, unpaginated, colorpl. 11. Claus Virch and Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. in Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1959, p. 56, no.

64, ill., note that the Javanese figures at Borobudur were the inspiration for these figures as well as those that appeared in "Faa Iheihe" of 1898 (W 569; Courtauld Institute, London) and "Rupe Rupe" (W585; Pushkin Museum, Moscow); remark that the figure on the left is also shown in a wooden sculpture, in a monotype in a manuscript, and in a woodcut used as the masthead for an issue of "La Sourire". John Richardson. "Gauguin at Chicago and New York." Burlington Magazine 101 (May 1959), p. 191. René Huyghe et al., ed. Gauguin. Paris, 1961, pp. 60, 254, ill. Bernard Dorival in Gauguin. Paris, 1961, pp. 60, 124, 181, ill., reproduces a color image of "La marchande de pommes" by M.

Gray, which appeared on the cover of two issues of the "Courrier français" in 1884 and 1885, and remarks that Mme Thirion had shown that the illustration had a direct influence on the figure on the left in this picture. Lawrence Hanson and Elisabeth Hanson. The Seekers: Gauguin, van Gogh, Cézanne. New York, 1963, pp. 284–85. Georges Wildenstein. Gauguin. Vol. 1, French ed. [English ed. 1965]. Paris, 1964, p. 246, no. 583, ill., calls it "Les Seins aux fleurs rouge"; catalogues it in detail, citing several drawings and paintings with figures similar to those represented here. Raymond Charmet. Gauguin. [Verviers, Belgium], 1965, pp. 80, 87, ill. p. 53. Patrick O'Reilly. Catalogue du Musée Gauguin, Papeari, Tahiti. Paris, 1965, p.

71, illustrates a copy of this painting given to the museum by Mrs. Chester Dale. Phoebe Pool. Gauguin. [London], 1966, colorpl. XII, suggests that it was probably of such figures that Gauguin wrote to Strindberg,"The Eve I have painted—she and she alone—can remain naturally naked before us. Yours, in this simple state, could not move without a feeling of shame". Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 176–78, ill. Alfred Werner. Paul Gauguin. New York, 1967, pp. 44–45, no. 16, ill., calls it "Two Tahitian Women (Femmes aux Mangos)" and erroneously dates it 1889; contrasts Gauguin's standards of beauty with those of other nineteenth-century French artists. Margaretta M. Salinger.

"Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill. Françoise Cachin. Gauguin. Paris, 1968, pp. 301–3, 349 n. 24, ill. Patrik Reuterswärd, et al. Gauguin i Söderhavet [Gauguin in the South Sea Islands]. Exh. cat., Etnografiska Museet and Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, 1970, p. 95, no. 54, fig. 75. Wayne Andersen with the assistance of Barbara Klein in Gauguin's Paradise Lost. New York, 1971, p. 247. G. M. Sugana. L'opera completa di Gauguin. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1969; Engl. ed, 1973]. Milan, 1972, p. 112, no. 399, ill. p. 110, colorpl. IL. Linda Nochlin.

"Eroticism and Female Imagery in Nineteenth-Century Art." Woman as Sex Object: Studes in Erotic Art, 1730–1970. Ed. Thomas B. Hess and Linda Nochlin. New York, 1972, pp. 8–9, 11, ill. (color detail). Kuno Mittelstädt. Paul Gauguin. Berlin, 1973, unpaginated, no. 25, ill., calls it "Mädchen mit Mangoblüten". Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, p. 21. 100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum [in Russian]. Exh. cat., State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. Moscow, 1975, pp. 195–97, no. 73, ill. (color), remarks that Gauguin's emphasis with these Maori women is their beauty, where usually he concentrates on their strength. Robert Goldwater. Paul Gauguin. concise ed. [lst ed.

1957]. New York, 1983, p. 120, ill. (color). Patrik Reuterswärd. "Gauguin och den tahitiska kvinnan." Konsthistorisk tidskrift (1984), pp. 82–84, ill., uses it as an example of the more mature and realistic approach that followed Gauguin's suicide attempt of New Year's Eve, 1897. Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, pp. 5, 76, ill. (color), identify the woman to the left as Gauguin's mistress Pahura; remark that the pose of the woman on the right appears in several works Gauguin painted between 1896 and 1899, and note that the position of her hands derives from carvings on the Javanese temple of Borobudur. Yann le Pichon. Gauguin: Life, Art, Inspiration. New York, 1987, pp. 198–99, no. 375, ill.

(color), reproduces a photograph of two Tahitian women in clothing and poses similar to those in this painting. Richard Brettell in The Art of Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1988, pp. 253, 424–25, no. 230, ill. (color), discusses various possible sources for the two figures; relates two charcoal drawings to the heads of the figures, one whose whereabouts is unknown (ill. p. 425) and one in a private collection (cat. no. 124); mentions that the figure on the left appears in a carving from about 1892 (Hirshhorn Museum, Washington); adds that since in traditional Polynesian society men and women were forbidden to eat together, the picture may be interpreted as a "private viewing of a female realm". Pierre Daix. Paul Gauguin. [Paris], 1989, pp. 304, 306–7, ill., compares its feeling to that of Giorgione's "Concert champêtre". Joseph J.

Rishel in Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, and Mark Rosenthal. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1991, p. 194 n. 7. Anna G. Barskaya and Albert G. Kostenevich. The Hermitage Catalogue of Western European Painting: French Painting, Mid-Nineteenth to Twentienth [sic] Centuries. Florence, 1991, pp. 171–72, remark that Gauguin repeated the gesture of the woman on the right in several other works, including three in the Hermitage. Pierre-Francis Schneeberger. Gauguin – Tahiti. Paris, 1991, pp. 52, 56, ill. (color). Roseline Bacou in Gauguin: Actes du colloque Gauguin. Paris, 1991, pp. 17–18, 48 n.

59, notes that in September 1900 Fayet purchased from Monfried two paintings by Gauguin, this picture and "Three Tahitians". Peter Brooks. "Gauguin's Tahitian Body." The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History. Ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard. New York, 1992, p. 343, ill. Ingo F. Walther. Paul Gauguin, 1848–1903: The Primitive Sophisticate. Cologne, 1993, pp. 80–81, 85. Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Part I. Sotheby's, New York. November 8, 1994, unpaginated, under no. 13, relates it to a drawing titled "Tahitiennes" of circa 1891–93. Asya Kantor-Gukovskaya in Paul Gauguin, Mysterious Affinities. English ed. (Russian ed. 1995). Bournemouth, 1995, pp.

63, 150. Claudia Beltramo and Ceppi Zevi, ed. Paul Gauguin e l'avanguardia russa. Exh. cat.Florence, 1995, pp. 120, 122, 124, 126. David Sweetman. Paul Gauguin: A Complete Life. London, 1995, pp. 474–75, 478. Anna Maria Damigella. Paul Gauguin, La vita e l'opera. Milan, 1997, pp. 30, 207, 242–43, ill. (color). Michael Bockemühl in Paul Gauguin: Das verlorene Paradies. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Cologne, 1998, pp. 113, 115, 323, no. 49, ill. (color). Paul Gauguin, Tahiti. Ed. Christoph Becker. Exh. cat., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Stuttgart, 1998, pp.

76–77, 81, 168, no. 55, ill. (color), discusses the painting in the context of Gauguin's work of the second period in Tahiti, beginning in 1895; remarks on the eerie silence in these melancholy later paintings and calls the blossoms or fruit in the bowl a sacrifice. Elizabeth C. Childs in Antimodernism and Artistic Experience: Policing the Boundaries of Modernity. Ed. Lynda Jessup. Toronto, 2001, pp. 57–58, 68 nn. 39–40, fig. 3.7. Colta Ives in Colta Ives and Susan Alyson Stein. The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, p. 224, no. 105, ill. p. 131 (color). Susan Alyson Stein in Colta Ives and Susan Alyson Stein. The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

New York, 2002, pp. 171, 229 n. 43, p. 230, fig. 66 (installation photo). Charlotte Hale in Colta Ives and Susan Alyson Stein. The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, p. 189. Paule Laudon. Tahiti—Gauguin: Mythe et vérités. Paris, 2003, pp. 119–20, ill. (color). George T. M. Shackelford in George T. M. Shackelford and Claire Frèches-Thory. Gauguin Tahiti. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Boston, 2004, pp. 197–200, 356, no. 156, ill. (color). Geneviève Lacambre in Il Simbolismo da Moreau a Gauguin a Klimt. Exh. cat., Palazzo dei Diamanti.

Ferrara, 2007, p. 120. Abigail Solomon-Godeau in Paul Gauguin: Artist of Myth and Dream. Ed. Stephen F. Eisenman. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2007, p. 77. Susan Alyson Stein in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 167, 251–52, no. 155, ill. (color and black and white). Christine I. Oaklander. "Jonathan Sturges, W. H. Osborn, and William Church Osborn: A Chapter in American Art Patronage." Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008), pp. 188–89, 191, fig. 25 (color). Joseph J. Rishel in Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein and Asher Ethan Miller. 4th rev. ed.

[1st ed., 1989]. New York, 2009, p. 189 n. 7. Anna Gruetzner Robins. "'Manet and the Post-Impressionists': a checklist of exhibits." Burlington Magazine 152 (December 2010), p. 786, identifies it as among the Gauguins on view at the Grafton Galleries, London, exhibition "Manet and the Post-Impressionists" of 1910 based on contemporary press illustrations of the exhibition. Paloma Alarcó et al. Gauguin y el viaje a lo exótico. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. [Madrid], 2012, pp. 99, 112–13, no. 14, ill. (color). Elizabeth C. Childs. Vanishing Paradise: Art and Exoticism in Colonial Tahiti. Berkeley, 2013, pp. 98, 264 nn.

29, 30, colorpl 6, compares The Met's picture to its source photographs of the Borobudur temple reliefs from Gauguin's collection and notes that his borrowing of subservient ritual poses from the relief would have invited his contemporaries to read the picture acccording to then-circulating European conventions of orientalism. Starr Figura. Gauguin: Metamorphoses. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 2014, pp. 196, 229, colorpl. 164, notes that its palette of jewel tones offsets the models' skintones; discusses the fruits and flowers depicted as fertility symbols; observes that such toga-like dresses were not worn by Tahitians or Marquesans.

Timeline of Art History (2000-present) Essays Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression : NPR Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression Embed Embed Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression Gauguin's Nude Tahitians Give The Wrong Impression Embed Embed Enlarge this image 'Maker Of Myth': A new exhibit at the National Gallery explores how French post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin didn't let reality stop him from painting the primitive island culture he'd hoped to find in Tahiti — but didn't. Above, Gauguin's 1898 painting, Faa Iheihe, or, To Make Beautiful. Tate, London hide caption toggle caption Tate, London 'Maker Of Myth': A new exhibit at the National Gallery explores how French post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin didn't let reality stop him from painting the primitive island culture he'd hoped to find in Tahiti — but didn't. Above, Gauguin's 1898 painting, Faa Iheihe, or, To Make Beautiful.

Tate, London A portion of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., has the look of a tropical paradise these days. A major exhibition of works by 19th century post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin includes oil paintings and other objects he created on the South Seas island of Tahiti. But the real Tahiti bore little resemblance to the one Gauguin depicted on his canvases. Enlarge this image By the time Gauguin arrived in the late 1800s, Tahiti had been "thoroughly Christianized and colonized" by the French, says National Gallery curator Mary Morton. Women didn't walk around half-nude — but Gauguin painted them that way anyway. Above, an 1899 depiction of Two Tahitian Women. The Metropolitan Museum of Art hide caption toggle caption The Metropolitan Museum of Art By the time Gauguin arrived in the late 1800s, Tahiti had been "thoroughly Christianized and colonized" by the French, says National Gallery curator Mary Morton. Women didn't walk around half-nude — but Gauguin painted them that way anyway. Above, an 1899 depiction of Two Tahitian Women.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art In the 1870s, Gauguin, married with five children, was working as a stockbroker in Paris. He started collecting art, then began creating art, and thus began to rewrite his narrative. "By the early 1880s he can no longer abide his life as a bourgeois gentleman, father, husband and Sunday painter. He needs to be an artist," explains Mary Morton, National Gallery curator. And so he travels to Polynesia, where apart from a few trips out, he stays for the rest of his life. The paintings, wood carvings and ceramics he made in Tahiti are full of bare-breasted, native women — voluptuous, sensuous. Gauguin's 1899 painting Two Tahitian Women "could serve as a pinup in a tourist bureau," Morton says. It's a glamorous vision, but a false one. The artist had hoped to find such exotic, half-clothed beauties — but did not. "Tahiti was a French colony," Morton explains. "It had been thoroughly Christianized and colonized. The women were not walking around half-naked. ... They tended to be wearing ...

Christian missionary gowns." Still, on his canvases, Gauguin took off their clothes and bared their undressed beauty. In his 1892 work The Delightful Land, Gauguin depicts Tahitian Eve in the Garden of Eden. An exotic flower takes the place of the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. A lizard with flaming red wings substitutes for for the Bible's serpent. Article continues after sponsorship Enlarge this image Gauguin depicts a Tahitian Garden of Eden in his 1892 painting Te Nave Nave Fenua, or, The Delightful Land. Gauguin paints a strong, stocky Eve — who, if you look carefully , has seven toes on her left foot. Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama hide caption toggle caption Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama Gauguin depicts a Tahitian Garden of Eden in his 1892 painting Te Nave Nave Fenua, or, The Delightful Land. Gauguin paints a strong, stocky Eve — who, if you look carefully , has seven toes on her left foot. Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama Over the centuries, hundreds of artists had rendered images of Eve.

But their work reflected Western ideals of beauty — "white, small waist, small little feet, polished skin, no body hair," Morton says. Gauguin's Tahitian Eve, however, was different: "Broad shoulders, strong legs, pubic hair," Morton describes the image. "And then the most extraordinary thing about her — is her feet." Tahitian Eve has enormous feet — with seven toes on the left foot. That's how primitive she is, Gauguin seems to be saying. It was all too much — the bizarre figures and the sunset oranges and fuchsias — for European tastes. When Gauguin brought 44 canvases back to a Paris gallery, only four of them sold. (Today, Gauguins go for tens of millions.) "I am a savage," Gauguin wrote. "And civilized people suspect this." And perhaps they were right to suspect him. "He's a liar; he's a real liar," says Morton. Gauguin was a great artist. He wasn't Margaret Mead, carefully examining an island and its people. "Gauguin was not an anthropologist," Morton says with a laugh.

"He is using all of this as material for his own imaginative production." The title of this exhibit at the National Gallery of Art (it was organized by the Tate Modern in London) is Gauguin: Maker of Myth. And that myth is crucial. When Gauguin's dreams of paradise collided with Tahiti's harsh realities, his imagination informed the body of his Tahitian creations. "This is one of the problems with Gauguin's work," Morton says. "You know that he's making things up, but it's so seductive that you just have to reckon with it." Gauguin often titled his works in Tahitian — or broken Tahitian. He gave one painting from 1896 the mysterious title No te aha oe riri, or Why Are You Angry? The Art Institute of Chicago hide caption toggle caption The Art Institute of Chicago Gauguin often titled his works in Tahitian — or broken Tahitian. He gave one painting from 1896 the mysterious title No te aha oe riri, or Why Are You Angry?

The Art Institute of Chicago It's widely accepted that artists reinterpret reality, but the trouble is that Gauguin insisted that his depictions of island life were true — factual representations of a serene, sensual, primitive place. The French tourist industry was something of a co-conspirator in this; it wanted tourists to travel to the Polynesian colonies. And so it, too, underscored these images of lush, seductive destinations. These mass-marketed myths fed the fantasies of bored Europeans who were longing for something exotic, just out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered. Eventually, Gauguin got bored with island life; he was poor and fell ill. He wrote to a friend to say that he was thinking of coming back to Paris — but his friend advised against it. You built your reputation as the exotic artist in exile at the edge of the Earth, the friend advised. If you come back old and decrepit, you'll wreck it. And so Gauguin remained on his remote island. "He dies alone," Morton say, "sacrificing himself to this myth that he's constructed. It's just heartbreaking." Gauguin: Maker of Myth will be on view at the National Gallery of Art through early June.

It's a powerful show about a search for paradise and the revelations — for all of us — that emerge in that journey. Musée d'Orsay: Paul Gauguin Tahitian Women H. 69; W. 91.5 cm © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski Full entry Femmes de Tahiti [Tahitian Women] In 1891, Gauguin went to Tahiti, an island he imagined to be a primitive paradise. The artist wanted "to live there in ecstasy, calm and art". His financial difficulties, his aesthetic concerns and this very Baudelairian "invitation au voyage" drove him to that distant land to escape "the European struggle for money" - to be "free at last". This composition is typical of his paintings during the early part of his first stay in the Pacific, paintings often depicting Tahitian women busy with simple daily tasks. Here, the heavy, hieratic figures have their own space, creating a series of arabesques in a perfectly orchestrated harmony. The faces are rendered as a mask or a profile, rather indeterminate, but full of melancholy.

Gauguin's wonderfully confident handling of the line makes it both elegant and decorative. By choosing somewhat rigid poses, he introduces a rhythm into the painting through a mysterious, harmonious geometry, thus producing what looks more like a genre scene than a genuine double portrait. The painting is lightly animated both by the discreet, almost monochrome, still life in the foreground, and by the rollers breaking on the lagoon in the background, suggested by a few white highlights. The painter regarded this painting as significant enough to produce a variant of it in 1892, Parau Api (Dresden, Staatliche Kunstammlungen), in which the floral sarong replaces the sensible mission clothes of the woman on the right. The synthetic lines and simplified shapes of Manet, whom Gauguin admired greatly, influenced these contrasting outlines of the women. But above all, these characters herald the coloured effects of Matisse with their powerful graphic style and vivid colours.

Paul Gauguin | Tahitian Women Bathing | The Met Tahitian Women Bathing Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands) Date: Oil on paper, laid down on canvas Dimensions: 43 3/4 x 35 1/8 in Classification: 1975.1.179 On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 962 Dreaming of a paradise where he could “listen to the silence of beautiful tropical nights,” Gauguin set off for Tahiti in June 1891. While at first Tahitian Women Bathing resembles the artist’s Polynesian paintings, it was not painted in oil on canvas, but rather in oil on paper, and was begun as a sheet of working drawings. The large sheet was later mounted on canvas, retouched, and varnished, presumably to ready the work for sale. The unusual evolution of this picture from a sheet of working drawings provides insight into the artist’s methodology as a draftsman and painter, and also accounts for its compositional disharmony.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Paul Gauguin - The complete works Self Portrait With Palette Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. His bold experimentation with coloring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential exponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France to journalist Clovis Gauguin and half-Peruvian Aline Maria Chazal, the daughter of proto-socialist leader Flora Tristan. In 1851 the family left Paris for Peru, motivated by the political climate of the period. Clovis died on the voyage, leaving three-year old Paul, his mother and his sister to fend for themselves. They lived for four years in Lima, Peru with Paul's uncle and his family. The imagery of Peru would later influence Paul in his art.

Question: Which artist painted the picture Tahitian Women
Answer: Paul Gaugin